[Music]
I’m black
[Music]
some people say Brown
others will say chocolate then some
others will use some nasty words I’m a
woman
some people say little girl others will
say second-class citizen I am an African
some people say corrupt most people say
poor what a way to make everyone
uncomfortable but you see I share these
aspects of myself because before I was
conceived the world decided how I would
be treated and what the trajectory of my
life should be the world has
subconsciously influenced so many of you
here today and how you perceive me and I
make you uncomfortable for a reason I
make you uncomfortable to show you that
it is possible for young people to stand
up and step up in their society to lead
I am 23 I’m black I’m a woman and I’m an
African and who would have ever imagined
that I’d be in Frankfort today talking
about youth empowerment see youth
empowerment is not a choice for us and I
say it’s not a choice for us because
every section of the world is falling
apart we see genocide gender-based
violence slavery poverty refugee camps
attacks by extremists and despicable
leadership and that’s just naming a few
and when I think of all these things
happening in the world I always remember
the words of Professor parking from the
University of Cape Town she once told me
we are the ones we have been waiting for
and I say youth empowerment is not a
choice because we are the ones we have
been waiting for we are the
have to step up in our societies and
lead throughout my life they have been
various experiences that have challenged
me to stop waiting for other people to
come with solutions and to make
solutions myself and I’m sure that in
your own life you’ve had experiences
that have challenged you as well but
were you still waiting for other people
or did you step up and lead I’m gonna
share three stories with you that
encouraged me that forced me to stop
waiting for others firstly when I was 10
years old my dad and I went to the
shopping motor and some errands and it
was a casual Sunday he parked his car
and two seconds afterwards a white woman
jumped out of her car and called my dad
a kafir now Acathla in a South African
context is a very racist word to use
towards a black person and she called
him a kafir or because she felt that she
was entitled to a parking spot even
though he got there first so today I
don’t wait we cannot wait today we see
videos of police brutality in the States
on black bodies today like many black
people in the world
I can’t wait because all I want is to be
recognized as a human in a world that
chooses to see me as an animal when I
was 12 years old I was innocently
parading around the grocery store in a
dress my mom got for me and a man gave
me a look that I will never forget it
was a look that sexualized me and at age
12 I recognized that look so today I
don’t wait we cannot wait we see
statistics of gender-based violence
every single day we’ve got high femicide
rates in Mexico El Salvador South Africa
India Hong Kong and so many other
countries when I was 14 impersonating a
British or American accent was one of my
favorite things to do it sounds very
weird I know and why and it’s because
quietly showed me through the media that
being white and American or white and
British was the most amazing
positionality to have and in contrast
being African and black was something to
be ashamed of so today I don’t wait I
can’t wait and in the two months that
I’ve been pursuing my masters in London
I have met incredible young Africans and
when I share with them my passions for
Africa’s development they always say to
me
yeah well Africa has many problems I
don’t have time for that and so I’ve
stopped waiting I can’t wait anymore
so the question then becomes what does
it mean to stop waiting what do you do
when you stop waiting what actions do
you take and throughout my life again
I’ve tried so many different things
which I’m very excited to share with you
I first went on to Twitter and Twitter
is a fantastic platform because you get
to write these short comments you get to
hold leaders accountable you get direct
access to high-profile individuals to
challenge them on things my friends like
to say yeah you get to slide into
people’s DMS you get to act people which
is fantastic but how effective is
Twitter how effective is it as a
platform for social change and I
understand that in some cases campaigns
can be super effective and we’ve seen
the power of hashtags and I get that if
Twitter is used well and not to spread
alternative facts something we can teach
our current leaders about if Twitter is
used well then it can have a great
impact but to what extent then I went
onto Facebook and Facebook is awesome
because anyone who knows me knows that I
love to write long paragraphs about
things that I’m passionate about so
Facebook allowed me to write
thought-provoking statuses to challenge
my friends and my followers and again I
had to ask myself is this effective then
we got facebook of videos where we could
share about injustice around the world
and change the narrative and that’s cool
but I asked myself again so you spend
two minutes watching a video 30 seconds
writing a short summation of the video
and then you share it but is that impact
how far does sharing an attn video go
how many World Economic Forum videos do
you have to share on your Facebook to
properly affect tangible change then I
said okay cool in addition to my
keyboard warrior behavior which is a
term I really love how can we how can I
make tangible change
so I decided I’ve got it I’ve got it I’m
gonna work really really hard in
university so that one day I can be
financially stable enough to create some
cool organization that’s gonna change
the world one day and I started asking
myself again how can I wait for one day
in a world that is telling me it needs
me now is my degree shaping me to be a
change maker oh is my degree shaping me
so that I can be a great employee for
the top consulting firms and I ask
myself this every day as you can see I’m
a very inquisitive person so my family
gets very annoyed but these questions
were super important and like so many of
you here today I can relate I worked at
Deloitte and had a fantastic time there
and the whole time I was working there I
asked myself how do I make tangible
change how do I do this in addition to
everything else I’m doing at work and
these are pertinent questions I then
went on to say cool as a young person
the world is constantly telling me that
you must wait until you’ve got seven
years of work experience before you can
be a change maker the world tells us
that no unless you mature you can’t
start a business you need a seven page
CV before you make tangible change how
do we navigate ages complexities that
seem to discourage young people now the
one solution I do have for everyone in
this room is pretty simple and it’s not
a solution that’ll be liked by many
politicians around the world but it’s
one that I’ll gladly share with you we
ignore these discouraging voices and we
make change anyway
ignore the voices that tell you that you
can’t do things just cause you’re a
young person and make the change anyway
we are the ones we have been waiting for
our world needs us now
our world does not need us to follow
this progression and in at some stage
decide that we’re gonna have impact I
decided from a very young age that I was
not gonna wait until I was 40 to do
something cool to do something
meaningful to change people’s lives the
one area that I was particularly
interested in changing was of the
perception of Africa to Africans now
what does that mean right so for many of
you here your perception of Africa is so
different to mine we’re fed that
Africa’s poor Africa’s corrupt Africa’s
weak and I smile when I say that it’s
not because I agree but because I find
it hilarious cuz my vision of Africa is
so different I believe in an empowered
Africa I believe in an Africa that’s got
potential for growth and I believe that
it was possible and necessary for us as
young people to step up and change that
so I had no experience I had fears I had
so much anxiety oh so much anxiety and
so many doubts but I approached young
people in my community and partnered
with them and in particular one of the
most incredible young people her name is
Rianne Olivier Narayana and I together
founded Africa matters Africa matters is
a youth-led organization that is
dedicated to creating spaces for young
Africans to be empowered we want young
Africans to change the narrative by
reshaping the way we look at Africa by
leading in our societies now and that
means that we need to become active
citizens we started this in university
just two years ago and through our
workshops and African feminism’s summits
on African Leadership School talks on
youth empowerment and great online media
presence in just over two years we’ve
managed to
Packt 15,000 african and diaspora and I
think that’s something and that shows
you the power of young people who get
together to make change a few weeks ago
I sat in a lecture a development lecture
a subject I loved and the professor said
to the class you know guys from my
research there’ll be 30 countries in the
world that will always be poor and I
like oh okay
and then he he was asked to give
examples and he said oh you know Sierra
Leone and those other ones okay so he
alluded to the fact that so many
countries in Africa would continue to be
poor indefinitely
and I felt three emotions then I thought
anger I felt disappointment and
discouraged I was angry at the colonial
history that a stripped Africa Bay and
left us economically backwards I was
disappointed at the African leaders who
have put forward their own agendas
rather than the people that voted for
them and I was discouraged because I
thought to myself if this is what
statistics say then what is Africa man
is even doing can we really make an
impact are we biting off more than we
can chew
and so I remembered these words we are
the ones we’ve been waiting for and this
sounds very non German I know because he
gave me statistics but I said to him I
reject your research I adamantly reject
your research and I reject that research
because I strongly believe in the power
of young people around the world to
change our societies Africa has over 220
million young people between the ages of
15 to 24 now that can either be a burden
or an opportunity and I believe that it
is more of an opportunity young people
today have access to innovative
resources that enable us to make
tangible change globalization has
completely shaped the way we interact
with
each other globalization allows us to
share ideas knowledge and solutions I am
studying in the UK because of
globalization because my aim is to go
back home and be like damn let’s if
let’s effect this amazing change
globalization is the reason I’m here
today youth youth for advocates gives us
these stats they say that 238 million
youth live below the poverty line and of
all the unemployed people in the world
youth constitute 41% UNESCO goes on to
tell us that in 2015 they were 1.2
billion youth this means that one in
every six people on earth was a young
person now I’d like to believe that all
of us in this room have access to
resources and opportunities that
millions of young people around the
world don’t have and I’m including
myself when I say all of us in this room
have these opportunities so what are we
waiting for
why are we content being keyboard
warriors why have we convinced ourselves
that we can’t do anything in addition to
studying and I know studying is hard but
we’ve got so many hours we can do so
much our world needs us to step up
society needs us now more than ever
world leaders are getting younger and
younger and if we are the ones we’ve
been waiting for then we need to put
that into action we all come from
different communities that need some
form of fixing whether it’s creating an
app that will encourage communities to
go green or creating platforms for youth
engagement in politics or going into
schools and being a role model for young
people because that’s the one thing the
world lacks its young role models who
can cultivate a change in other young
people there’s something that we can all
do in our societies and the most
perception is that
to effect tangible change you need to
start big that doesn’t have to be the
case Africa Manor started so small we
started as an online article sharing
shindig and suddenly we grew and we grew
and grew and this year has been a year
of such success and we hope to grow from
success to success the key is that you
just need to start team up with young
people share your skills share your
passions and then seek wisdom from older
people because their experiences can
tell you what works what doesn’t work
can you try this but you be the one
who’s going to affect that change you be
the one who is going to make an impact
in your society I stopped waiting a very
long time ago
and if we are the ones we’ve been
waiting for then my final question to
everyone in this audience today is are
you still waiting thank you
[Applause]
I’m black
[Music]
some people say Brown
others will say chocolate then some
others will use some nasty words I’m a
woman
some people say little girl others will
say second-class citizen I am an African
some people say corrupt most people say
poor what a way to make everyone
uncomfortable but you see I share these
aspects of myself because before I was
conceived the world decided how I would
be treated and what the trajectory of my
life should be the world has
subconsciously influenced so many of you
here today and how you perceive me and I
make you uncomfortable for a reason I
make you uncomfortable to show you that
it is possible for young people to stand
up and step up in their society to lead
I am 23 I’m black I’m a woman and I’m an
African and who would have ever imagined
that I’d be in Frankfort today talking
about youth empowerment see youth
empowerment is not a choice for us and I
say it’s not a choice for us because
every section of the world is falling
apart we see genocide gender-based
violence slavery poverty refugee camps
attacks by extremists and despicable
leadership and that’s just naming a few
and when I think of all these things
happening in the world I always remember
the words of Professor parking from the
University of Cape Town she once told me
we are the ones we have been waiting for
and I say youth empowerment is not a
choice because we are the ones we have
been waiting for we are the
have to step up in our societies and
lead throughout my life they have been
various experiences that have challenged
me to stop waiting for other people to
come with solutions and to make
solutions myself and I’m sure that in
your own life you’ve had experiences
that have challenged you as well but
were you still waiting for other people
or did you step up and lead I’m gonna
share three stories with you that
encouraged me that forced me to stop
waiting for others firstly when I was 10
years old my dad and I went to the
shopping motor and some errands and it
was a casual Sunday he parked his car
and two seconds afterwards a white woman
jumped out of her car and called my dad
a kafir now Acathla in a South African
context is a very racist word to use
towards a black person and she called
him a kafir or because she felt that she
was entitled to a parking spot even
though he got there first so today I
don’t wait we cannot wait today we see
videos of police brutality in the States
on black bodies today like many black
people in the world
I can’t wait because all I want is to be
recognized as a human in a world that
chooses to see me as an animal when I
was 12 years old I was innocently
parading around the grocery store in a
dress my mom got for me and a man gave
me a look that I will never forget it
was a look that sexualized me and at age
12 I recognized that look so today I
don’t wait we cannot wait we see
statistics of gender-based violence
every single day we’ve got high femicide
rates in Mexico El Salvador South Africa
India Hong Kong and so many other
countries when I was 14 impersonating a
British or American accent was one of my
favorite things to do it sounds very
weird I know and why and it’s because
quietly showed me through the media that
being white and American or white and
British was the most amazing
positionality to have and in contrast
being African and black was something to
be ashamed of so today I don’t wait I
can’t wait and in the two months that
I’ve been pursuing my masters in London
I have met incredible young Africans and
when I share with them my passions for
Africa’s development they always say to
me
yeah well Africa has many problems I
don’t have time for that and so I’ve
stopped waiting I can’t wait anymore
so the question then becomes what does
it mean to stop waiting what do you do
when you stop waiting what actions do
you take and throughout my life again
I’ve tried so many different things
which I’m very excited to share with you
I first went on to Twitter and Twitter
is a fantastic platform because you get
to write these short comments you get to
hold leaders accountable you get direct
access to high-profile individuals to
challenge them on things my friends like
to say yeah you get to slide into
people’s DMS you get to act people which
is fantastic but how effective is
Twitter how effective is it as a
platform for social change and I
understand that in some cases campaigns
can be super effective and we’ve seen
the power of hashtags and I get that if
Twitter is used well and not to spread
alternative facts something we can teach
our current leaders about if Twitter is
used well then it can have a great
impact but to what extent then I went
onto Facebook and Facebook is awesome
because anyone who knows me knows that I
love to write long paragraphs about
things that I’m passionate about so
Facebook allowed me to write
thought-provoking statuses to challenge
my friends and my followers and again I
had to ask myself is this effective then
we got facebook of videos where we could
share about injustice around the world
and change the narrative and that’s cool
but I asked myself again so you spend
two minutes watching a video 30 seconds
writing a short summation of the video
and then you share it but is that impact
how far does sharing an attn video go
how many World Economic Forum videos do
you have to share on your Facebook to
properly affect tangible change then I
said okay cool in addition to my
keyboard warrior behavior which is a
term I really love how can we how can I
make tangible change
so I decided I’ve got it I’ve got it I’m
gonna work really really hard in
university so that one day I can be
financially stable enough to create some
cool organization that’s gonna change
the world one day and I started asking
myself again how can I wait for one day
in a world that is telling me it needs
me now is my degree shaping me to be a
change maker oh is my degree shaping me
so that I can be a great employee for
the top consulting firms and I ask
myself this every day as you can see I’m
a very inquisitive person so my family
gets very annoyed but these questions
were super important and like so many of
you here today I can relate I worked at
Deloitte and had a fantastic time there
and the whole time I was working there I
asked myself how do I make tangible
change how do I do this in addition to
everything else I’m doing at work and
these are pertinent questions I then
went on to say cool as a young person
the world is constantly telling me that
you must wait until you’ve got seven
years of work experience before you can
be a change maker the world tells us
that no unless you mature you can’t
start a business you need a seven page
CV before you make tangible change how
do we navigate ages complexities that
seem to discourage young people now the
one solution I do have for everyone in
this room is pretty simple and it’s not
a solution that’ll be liked by many
politicians around the world but it’s
one that I’ll gladly share with you we
ignore these discouraging voices and we
make change anyway
ignore the voices that tell you that you
can’t do things just cause you’re a
young person and make the change anyway
we are the ones we have been waiting for
our world needs us now
our world does not need us to follow
this progression and in at some stage
decide that we’re gonna have impact I
decided from a very young age that I was
not gonna wait until I was 40 to do
something cool to do something
meaningful to change people’s lives the
one area that I was particularly
interested in changing was of the
perception of Africa to Africans now
what does that mean right so for many of
you here your perception of Africa is so
different to mine we’re fed that
Africa’s poor Africa’s corrupt Africa’s
weak and I smile when I say that it’s
not because I agree but because I find
it hilarious cuz my vision of Africa is
so different I believe in an empowered
Africa I believe in an Africa that’s got
potential for growth and I believe that
it was possible and necessary for us as
young people to step up and change that
so I had no experience I had fears I had
so much anxiety oh so much anxiety and
so many doubts but I approached young
people in my community and partnered
with them and in particular one of the
most incredible young people her name is
Rianne Olivier Narayana and I together
founded Africa matters Africa matters is
a youth-led organization that is
dedicated to creating spaces for young
Africans to be empowered we want young
Africans to change the narrative by
reshaping the way we look at Africa by
leading in our societies now and that
means that we need to become active
citizens we started this in university
just two years ago and through our
workshops and African feminism’s summits
on African Leadership School talks on
youth empowerment and great online media
presence in just over two years we’ve
managed to
Packt 15,000 african and diaspora and I
think that’s something and that shows
you the power of young people who get
together to make change a few weeks ago
I sat in a lecture a development lecture
a subject I loved and the professor said
to the class you know guys from my
research there’ll be 30 countries in the
world that will always be poor and I
like oh okay
and then he he was asked to give
examples and he said oh you know Sierra
Leone and those other ones okay so he
alluded to the fact that so many
countries in Africa would continue to be
poor indefinitely
and I felt three emotions then I thought
anger I felt disappointment and
discouraged I was angry at the colonial
history that a stripped Africa Bay and
left us economically backwards I was
disappointed at the African leaders who
have put forward their own agendas
rather than the people that voted for
them and I was discouraged because I
thought to myself if this is what
statistics say then what is Africa man
is even doing can we really make an
impact are we biting off more than we
can chew
and so I remembered these words we are
the ones we’ve been waiting for and this
sounds very non German I know because he
gave me statistics but I said to him I
reject your research I adamantly reject
your research and I reject that research
because I strongly believe in the power
of young people around the world to
change our societies Africa has over 220
million young people between the ages of
15 to 24 now that can either be a burden
or an opportunity and I believe that it
is more of an opportunity young people
today have access to innovative
resources that enable us to make
tangible change globalization has
completely shaped the way we interact
with
each other globalization allows us to
share ideas knowledge and solutions I am
studying in the UK because of
globalization because my aim is to go
back home and be like damn let’s if
let’s effect this amazing change
globalization is the reason I’m here
today youth youth for advocates gives us
these stats they say that 238 million
youth live below the poverty line and of
all the unemployed people in the world
youth constitute 41% UNESCO goes on to
tell us that in 2015 they were 1.2
billion youth this means that one in
every six people on earth was a young
person now I’d like to believe that all
of us in this room have access to
resources and opportunities that
millions of young people around the
world don’t have and I’m including
myself when I say all of us in this room
have these opportunities so what are we
waiting for
why are we content being keyboard
warriors why have we convinced ourselves
that we can’t do anything in addition to
studying and I know studying is hard but
we’ve got so many hours we can do so
much our world needs us to step up
society needs us now more than ever
world leaders are getting younger and
younger and if we are the ones we’ve
been waiting for then we need to put
that into action we all come from
different communities that need some
form of fixing whether it’s creating an
app that will encourage communities to
go green or creating platforms for youth
engagement in politics or going into
schools and being a role model for young
people because that’s the one thing the
world lacks its young role models who
can cultivate a change in other young
people there’s something that we can all
do in our societies and the most
perception is that
to effect tangible change you need to
start big that doesn’t have to be the
case Africa Manor started so small we
started as an online article sharing
shindig and suddenly we grew and we grew
and grew and this year has been a year
of such success and we hope to grow from
success to success the key is that you
just need to start team up with young
people share your skills share your
passions and then seek wisdom from older
people because their experiences can
tell you what works what doesn’t work
can you try this but you be the one
who’s going to affect that change you be
the one who is going to make an impact
in your society I stopped waiting a very
long time ago
and if we are the ones we’ve been
waiting for then my final question to
everyone in this audience today is are
you still waiting thank you
[Applause]
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